Long Beach City College Decides to Launch Higher One's OneDisburse Refund Management to Electronically Distribute Refund Checks to Students

New Haven, CT – October 17, 2007 - Higher One, a financial services company focused exclusively on higher education, is very happy to announce that Long Beach City College has elected to offer students the ability to receive their refunds electronically through OneDisburse Refund Management.

LBCC is the 80th school in the country to reach an agreement with Higher One. Higher One has now issued more than $3 billion in refunds to more than 1 million students since the company's inception.

"We were impressed with Higher One's extensive experience working with colleges and universities throughout the US," said Duane Lowe, EdD, Director of Finance at Long Beach Community College District. "This experience made us confident that, as our partners in implementing a major organizational change, Higher One would offer maximum flexibility to help define and refine our vision of a hassle-free financial aid disbursement system."

LBCC, a college with a total enrollment of more than 26,000 students, will now be able to offer students three ways to receive their refunds from the school: direct deposit to Higher One's OneAccount, an FDIC-insured checking account tied to a Debit MasterCard®, an ACH to the student's current bank, or a check mailed to the student's address on file.

In a recent on-line survey of more than 1,300 students, conducted by Higher One, 80% of students said that they were relying on their financial aid refunds to pay for some portion of their back to school costs including books, school supplies, rent, and utilities. Nearly 81% of these students said they would not be able to cover these costs on their own if their refund were delayed. The administration at LBCC has elected to distribute refunds electronically in an effort to better serve the college's students by giving them more flexibility and speed in the way they receive their refunds.

Sending refunds through OneDisburse Refund Management will also enable LBCC to cease production of paper check refunds from the school. The new process will help the college save on the costs associated with issuing paper checks, such as the costs of paper, ink, envelopes, postage and labor both for the production of the checks and customer service.

"The goals for this vision are a seamless transition from issuance of paper checks to a paperless direct deposit system," explained Lowe. "This new cutting edge system will be easy for students to use and understand, and it will be easy for staff to administer. It's a win-win situation for everyone."

LBCC will begin issuing refunds through Higher One in January of 2008.

Founded in 2000, Higher One provides higher education institutions and their students with efficient, convenient and easy-to-use solutions to handle financial disbursements. These include: student refunds, on-campus and community purchases, payroll and employee expenses, as well as the collection of payments from students, parents, and sponsors.

Higher One offers a suite of online banking services including the OneAccount, an FDIC-insured checking account, and OneCard, a Debit MasterCard^®. To date, Higher One has disbursed over $4 billion dollars in refunds for its clients to more than 1,000,000 students, faculty, and staff at distinguished public and private higher education institutions throughout the country.

Media Contacts:
Melissa Kanter
Edelman
212.704.8261
Melissa.kanter@edelman.com